Charles Pierce Davey, better known as Chuck Davey, (3 May 1925–4 December 2002) was an American-born welterweight

Welterweight

Welterweight is a weight class division in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like kickboxing, taekwondo and mixed martial arts also began to use it for their own weight division system...

 boxer and boxing commissioner for the state of Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

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Career

Davey's official record contains 42 winning bouts (including 26 knockouts), 5 losses (2 knockouts), and 2 draws. Some of his more notable opponents included Rocky Graziano

Rocky Graziano

Rocky Graziano, born Thomas Rocco Barbella in New York City , was an Italian American boxer. Graziano was considered one of the greatest knockout artists in boxing history, often displaying the capacity to take his opponent out with a single punch...

, Ike Williams

Ike Williams (boxer)

Ike Williams was a former lightweight world boxing champion. Williams was known for his great right hand, and was named to the Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time as well as Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year for 1948.-Professional Career:During his career, Williams faced and...

, and Carmen Basilio

Carmen Basilio

Carmine Basilio better known in the boxing world as Carmen Basilio, is an American former professional boxer who was a two weight world boxing champion...

. He originally boxed for the Michigan State University

Michigan State University

Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...

 team, and competed in the Olympics for Team USA for boxing in 1948.

Davey's style was considered unique at the time because he was left-handed and often referred to as a southpaw.http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=009688&cat=boxer This initial upstart resulted in 39 straight wins until he met with Kid Gavilan

Kid Gavilan

Gerardo González , better known in the boxing world as Kid Gavilan, was a former world welterweight champion from Cuba...

 in 1953. The shadow of his first loss followed Davey for a long time:

Davey, a southpaw powderpuff puncher with fancy-Dan footwork, stayed on even terms with Gavilan for the first two rounds. In Round 3, Gavilan opened up with one of his famed flurries, pummeling with lefts, rights and his own uppercutting bolo punch. Davey, bewildered by the barrage, was dumped to the canvas for a nine count, the first time he had ever been knocked down. From then on it was just a matter of time, and Gavilan took his time. In Rounds 5 and 6, Gavilan switched styles and fought southpaw too, "just for the fun of it."http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,936375,00.html?promoid=googlep

The article, entitled "Fallen Idol," seemed to tarnish Davey's once pristine boxing career. Shortly after the loss to Gavilan, Davey retired and became Michigan's boxing commissioner. Once his boxing career ended completely, Davey worked in the insurance business and spent much of his time traveling and raising his family.

Family

Davey's mother's side of the family, her maiden name being Pierce, prior to the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, owned a large portion of land in Oscoda, Michigan on Lake Van Etten, which is located beside Wurtsmith Air Force Base

Wurtsmith Air Force Base

Wurtsmith Air Force Base is a decommissioned United States Air Force base in northeastern Iosco County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The former base includes located approximately two miles west of Lake Huron in the Charter Township of Oscoda, bordered by Van Ettan Lake, the Au Sable State...

. During the Depression, Barnard and Virginia Pierce sold most of the land which they owned, including Loud Island, to several developers and private landowners. What land the Pierce family kept and built cottages and homes on resides on a point of shallow land jutting into the quasi-shallow waters of Lake Van Etten, giving it the name "Pierce's Point."

While Davey spent most of his youth and adulthood in the metro-Detroit area, he summered in Oscoda with his wife, Patricia Davey, and his nine children (Maureen, Charles Pierce II, Patrick, Cathleen, Colleen, Kerry, Laurie, Michael, and Joseph). In his spare time, he traveled much of the world and maintained an active lifestyle, sometimes running marathons into his mid sixties and early seventies.

Besides his wife and nine children, Davey has a sister Margaret who resides in Coronado, California and 26 grandchildren (Ryann, Charles Pierce Davey III, Colin, Mitchell, Grant, Blake, Bowen, Douglas, Chelsea, Nicholas, Virginia, Molly, Jake, Mary Virginia, Colleen, Daniel, Dolan, Thomas, Alfred, Patricia, Gregory Francis, Maureen, Michael, Joseph, Connor, and Caitlin).

Accident and Death

In 1998, while swimming in the ocean, he was picked up by a wave and slammed onto the shore line. He broke a vertebra in his neck, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. http://www.lifeinlegacy.com/2002/WIR20021207.html Four years after this unfortunate accident (4 December 2002), when Davey was 77, he died of complications resulting from his paralysis

Paralysis

Paralysis is loss of muscle function for one or more muscles. Paralysis can be accompanied by a loss of feeling in the affected area if there is sensory damage as well as motor. A study conducted by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, suggests that about 1 in 50 people have been diagnosed...

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